Thursday, 28 November 2013

For last nights meal we had Meatball Spaghetti Bologneseand it was absolutely delicious. We took a trip to the market on Tuesday and I bought a student £10 pack of meat, which included: mince, steak, burgers, sausages, chicken and bacon. If you have a market near you, or a butchers, I would highly recommend you to buy your meat from them, as you always get good value for your money and the meat always tastes fantastic.

Meatball Spaghetti Bolognese

(I have no idea why this picture is changing colour every time I put it into blogger. Apologies for the graininess! I promise the original doesn't look like this)

What you will need:

Spaghetti (a handful)

2 small onions - or as many as you wish

Mixed herbs

Chopped tomatoes (a can or carton)

Mince meat (400g)

An egg

Tomato puree

Vegetable oil

1. Mix the egg in with the mince - this will hold the meat together when making the meatballs

2. Chop up the onions and fry in a wok/pan until soft.

Making the bolognese sauce:

3. Pour a carton of chopped tomatoes into a jug

4. Add a sprinkle of mixed herbs

5. Mix in tomato puree to make it the thickness you like

6. Add the sauce in with the onions to simmer

7. While the sauce is simmer, you can start making the meatballs. Take small amounts of mince and roll into balls (as big/small as you wish)

8. Start to fry the meatballs until brown and cooked all the way through.

9. While the meatballs are frying, add the spaghetti in a pan with boiling water in and boil for 10 minutes.

10. When all the meatballs have fried, add them into the sauce until the spaghetti is ready to be served.

and voilà another quick, cheap and delicious meal.

Please note: I am not a proper cook however I thought it would be ideal to show you what we're eating this week!

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

David has graced me with his presence this week (finally! This semester has been hard to see each other with David being in his third year and i'm at uni and working). We decided instead of our usual wining and dining, we would save our money and cook instead. I really don't know why we don't always do this, we are both fairly good at cooking - we just love eating out, especially if you can get unlimited drinks...

On Monday we went to Handmade Burger Co. as on Mondays they have 30% student discount and as a loyal customer I had a free burger to claim! We had a massive mare in there but it just shows that being a loyal customer gives you benefits (I will tell you about this over the weekend when I do my Gig Post). Monday night ended by going to see Crystal Fighters at Leeds Uni union and it was absolutely fabby. If you've never heard of them, check them out because they are such a happy, crazy and sparkly band and seeing them live just made me love them more.

Spring onion(s) as many as you wish - we used 3 sticks of spring onion

A clove of garlic

Egg noodles (I used Sharwoods)

Chow Mein stir fry sauce (I used Blue Dragon)

1. Get the oil boiling in the pan

2. Chop up the chicken fillets into pieces

3. Make the batter mix. Add water and 1 egg - the batter mix pack has the instructions on the back. If you want to make your batter from scratch you can use this recipe steps 1-5. We cheated a wee bit.

4. Soak the chicken in the batter mix. Start to place a couple pieces of chicken at a time into the oil - once brown take out and place in a bowl with some kitchen roll to soak the fat up.

5. Chop the onions, garlic and spring onions and fry in a wok.

6. Boil the noodles in a pan for 3 minutes.

7. Add the Chow Mein sauce to the onions.

8. Once the noodles have boiled, add them to the wok with the onions and the sauce in and mix.

9. Once you have fried up all the chicken balls, you are ready to serve.

and voilà a quick, cheap and delicious meal.

Please note: I am not a proper cook however I thought it would be ideal to show you what we're eating this week!

Friday, 22 November 2013

Shopcade are advertising their #Christmassorted campaign by featuring two lists each week to help you have a more organised and giving you the best ideas for everyones christmas presents this year. Basically Shopcade is your Christmas Elf.

This week features my list went and today it went live (Play it Safe). I have listed a load of safe, cute and ideal presents whether it for a friend or for your random work colleagues that you barely speak to, I have arranged a tonne of gifts for you!
If you want to be in the chance of winning a £50 Prezzybox Gift Card - just think, you could buy a good couple of christmas presents (or a good couple of presents for yourself) especially because Prezzybox have a lot of classic stocking fillers for great prices!

Interest? This is how to enter:
1. You need to sign up to Shopcade if you haven't already. You can do this here...
2. Follow either or both lists (Obviously mine, hehe) Play it Safe vs. Silly & Stupid
and it's as simple as that!

But if you think YOU can do BETTER then join in with the fun?
Make your own Christmas wishlist on the site (sign up here) and share it with the world. Let @Shopcade know about your list using the hastags #shopcade and #christmassorted and they will feature their favourites on the Trending feed.
Of course, there are some brilliant prizes to be won, so make sure your list is fab!1st Place:Will win a personal shopping experience complete with £200 spending money. wow, just wow.2nd Place: A beauty treat for yourself! After a stress free Shopcade Christmas, it's just what you'll need.3rd Place: A jam-packed Hamper full of Christmas goodies!

Shopcade is a brilliant shopping app, packed with brands and the latest trends, make sure you've signed up to be in the chance of winning some ideal christmas goodies!

Friday, 15 November 2013

You may or may not be aware from previous blog posts that I am a Shopcade Curator. This means that I have to send 2 lists each week to the Shopcade team with relevant themes or trends up and coming and all the best deals I can find!

Shopcade is an amazing app, I have fallen truly in love with it. You can shop all your favourite brands in one place, create different lists (kind of like pinterest) and then shopcade will even let you know when a product you have 'wanted' has a deal on! Thats not all you can do, you can follow brands, your favourite Shopcaders, lists and even make your own shopcade page personal. Shopcade also have a points system, each time you 'want' a product you get a couple of points, each day you log in, if someone else 'wants' a product you have wanted, if someone follows you and if you invite someone to join. With all these points it boosts your trend score, which allows you to use your points to redeem free gifts and offers on selected items/brands.

A genius idea.

I thought I should probably start sharing my lists with you each week, and see what you think! This week is Pastel Blue, I know we're not even in winter yet but this colour is going to be massive next year and here is a couple of items that I have selected.

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Primark? Nope, it's all about the £15 per Kilo Vintage Fairs. Freshers week is full of vintage fairs all around the country - I think, well they are in Leeds. You can buy a nice shirt in Primark for about £12 whereas at a vintage fair you can get about 5 for £15. The best thing about it is that no one else will have that exact shirt!

I am a huge shirt and jumper kind of girl. The majority of my walk-in-wardrobe (sorry but I haven't bragged about my wardrobe yet, saying that I still need to give you a tour around my new room!) is shirts and jumpers, and what better way to stock up for winter than a couple more shirts and jumpers to add to my collection?

I've been to about 4 vintage fairs since September and have bought some great items for great prices. I think that since vintage has become so popular recently that some fairs just charge way too much for items because they know that people will pay for it. However as a poor student, I like love to get the most out of my money. That's why I much prefer the £15 a kilo fairs and I have a couple of tips that I have learnt since going to a fair few.

Check for damages
What's worse than falling in love with something and putting it on at home and there is a ridiculous stain or hole in the most inconvenient place. I would definitely suggest checking the item before you buy it because it is second hand so it could be in any state and you could be wasting valuable kilo space! Also, don't not buy an item if you spot buttons missing because they can easily be replaced by either another button or a safety pin will do the trickHeavy items = More money
This is very obvious. But it does, if you have a heavy jumper than can easily mean you already gone over at least half your kilo. This leads me onto my next tip...Check for separate prices
At a fair I was at the other week, bags were £5 each and I was including it with my kilo and when I was getting rid of items to try make my bag lighter, the woman then told me that bags were a separate price if that worked out cheaper for me. It worked out £10 cheaper, so watch out for separate prices, even ask the helpers because they don't always have time to put out the signs. Does it fit?
Always try wear something versatile to the events so you can easily try on the garments without flashing yourself or getting naked - that's just not ideal. If you've been to the venue before, can you remember any dressing rooms? If not then don't be afraid to make your own dressing room in the middle of the venue (maybe somewhere more ideal and out the way...). As well as it fitting, you need to make sure if the garment looks fab on you or not!

I think I spent £35 for all of these items!

This bag is amazing. I used this on a staff night out, I was very drunk and I just kept finding more and more sections to my bag. Altogether there is 6 compartments and for a small bag, it holds a hell of a lot! Plus its real leather - for a fiver, it was such a bargain.

I think everyone apart from me hates the look of this jumper, when I put it on apparently it's 'not as bad' but I really love it. It's so cute and I feel like a big kid in it, its so cosy too.

This shirt is beautiful, the flowers are actually a netted material and are see-through which makes the shirt so unique yet very itchy.